Rac(e)ing to Class: Confronting Poverty and Race in Schools and Classrooms

In this incisive and practical book, H. Richard Milner IV provides educators with a crucial understanding of how to teach students of color who live in poverty. Milner looks carefully at the circumstances of these students’ lives and describes how those circumstances profoundly affect their experiences within schools and classrooms. In a series of detailed chapters, Milner proposes effective practices—at the district and school levels, and in individual classrooms—for school leaders and teachers who are committed to creating the best educational opportunities for these students.

Building on established literature, new research, and a number of revelatory case studies, Milner casts essential light on the experiences of students and their families living in poverty, while pointing to educational strategies that are shaped with these students’ unique circumstances in mind. Milner’s astute and nuanced account will fundamentally change how school leaders and teachers think about race and poverty—and how they can best serve these students in their schools and classrooms.

Table of Contents:
CONTENTS

Foreword by Tyrone C. Howard xi
Acknowledgments xv

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 1
School- and District-Level Reform for Effective Teaching and Learning 29

CHAPTER 2
Focus on Instruction 67

CHAPTER 3
Case Studies of Practice: Life in Schools and Classrooms 113

CHAPTER 4
A Call to Action in Teacher Education 143

CHAPTER 5
Conclusion 175

Notes 187
About the Author 203
Index 205



About the Author :
H. Richard Milner IV is the Helen Faison Professor of Urban Education and director of the Center for Urban Education at the University of Pittsburgh School for Education, USA.

Review :
"In reading Milner's book, I was immediately struck by the similarities between the experiences he shares, and the educational situation of Indigenous people here in Australia. Notwithstanding the need for context and locational sensitivity, there are nevertheless salient lessons within Milner's book for Australian educators and policy makers….Milner's book is not the first of its kind, and is unlikely to be the last if present inequities, prejudices and poor quality outcomes persist. While Milner looks through a ‘race-based’ prism to explain and counter social disadvantage, fellow African-American leading academic Sheryll Cashin adopts a ‘place-based’ approach to the same issues in her seminal work called ‘Place, Not Race: A New Vision of Opportunity in America’. Whether one chooses to look through Milner's window of ‘race’ or through Cashin's window of ‘place’, chances are we are looking at the same children. All young people – in the United States, Australia and elsewhere – deserve a high-quality education, which means greater equity in places and between races. Now there's a place worth racing to."  Australian Journal of Education, February 2016